Tuesday, October 22, 2013

This bolognese sauce is dedicated to the late, great
Marcella Hazan, who passed away in September, at the age of 89. She was
considered the Julia Child of Italian food, and at a time when most Americans
though “bolognese” was spaghetti sauce with chunks of hamburger it, Marcella
taught us just how magnificent this meat sauce could be.

One thing that always surprises people making this recipe
for the first time is the absence of garlic. Hazan railed against the common
belief that garlic should be added to any and all Italian recipes. She once
wrote, “the unbalanced use of garlic is the single greatest cause of failure in
would-be Italian cooking,” and “Garlic can be exciting when you turn to it
sporadically, on impulse, but on a regular basis, it is tiresome.”

Would a few minced garlic cloves ruin this incredibly
delicious pasta sauce? Probably not, but since this is supposed to be something
of a tribute, I decided to remain true. Speaking of ingredients, I used ground
beef here, but I’ve also done this with cubed chuck roast, which works
wonderfully as well.

Anyway, I really hope you give this classic bolognese a try,
and if you do, and there’s some extra wine around, please raise a glass, and
toast the “Nonna” of Italian cuisine in America. Enjoy!

I have been making Marcella's Bolognese sauce for 20+ years exactly as she wrote the recipe. It is delicious, and though I've tried many others over time, none have been better than this! It freezes beautifully, too. Thanks for bringing this amazing recipe to the attention of others, in Marcella's memory. Ciao!

At the risk of picking nits, I'll say you nailed the pronunciation of "bolognese" .......... "tagliatelle", not so much.

The Italian letter combination "gn" is tricky. You correctly pronounced like the "gn" in "Poignant,". The letter combination "gli" in tagliatelle is even more tricky. If you drop the "g" you'll be close and if you replace "gli" with the Spanish "LL" you'll be near perfect.

Great recipe I love using a little white wine in the veggies and red wine once the meat browns but I'll be making this tomorrow as written but 1? is that a 4 quart sauce pan I just bought a All-Clad 4 quart pan

In answer to fany's question (above) ...I have an old copy of Marcella Hazan's cookbook, "The Classic Italian Cookbook" and it is subtitled... "The art of Italian cooking and the Italian art of eating.". I guess she felt that cooking is an art, and I totaly agree with her!

Would it be wise to add a touch of sugar to take the edge off the canned tomatoes or does the milk add that sweetness already? I usually use canned plum tomatoes because San marzano is hard to find and very expensive. I usually add sugar to my tomato dishes anyway so what do you think about that? X

Thank you for your answer!! I´m doing an essay for my art class, and I want to talk about food and cooking being art. May I quote your opinion Chef John?Also, I would appreciate a little more discussion about this subject, if it is possible!

I was always curious why neither of her sauce recipes (this one, and the other well known one with just butter, onion and crushed tomatoes)included any herbs. Is it uncommon in some areas of Italy to not use herbs in a red sauce?

Made your recipe for dinner! First off my home is just full of the smell of this pasta it has permeated every room it's a really rich smell it's amazing the flavor is so excellent hearty and with all this depth I also feel so damn cool having cooked this :)Strut yo stuff chef Jon! Tru fan fo life!!!!! XD

Chef John - Just made this for my family and it was a hit. Doubled it and now we'll have left overs tomorrow. Was a lovely rich and hearty meal. We had some of your no-knead ciabatta on the side. Delicious.

Hey Chef John,In your opinion would the flavour profile of this be noticeably altered if I were to use a food processor instead of doing a fine dice for the aromatic vegetables? I remember you mentioning a difference in taste when you diced the onions for french onion soup as opposed to the traditional french cut..... but in that case onion really was the main flavour. I know there is no way you could possibly know without trying, but Id love to hear your opinion .Thanks,-Shannon

We're making this tomorrow - only because I have faith in you, because every recipe we've tried of yours has turned out fantastically! The thought of pasta sauce without garlic or basil is hard to imagine, but I suspect this recipe will be as amazing as all your others...

Hello (: My sauce is currently simmering away but there is a problem :( the milk split or curdled i think? how do i avoid this? As a precaution i did go out and buy a deep pan 3 cheese pizza and a stonebake thin and crispy meat feast pizza so all is ok :D

Love your stuff! Chicken D'Ardudini is popular thing around are house with so many other of your recipes. This looks great I just wanted to ask if dry nutmeg will work if I am unable to grate the fresh stuff? Second, will a dutch over work well for this?

Hello Chef :)Last evening I gave it a try and managed to simmer the sauce for about 3h.My question is if there might be something to keep in mind if I want to put it again on the burner for another 3h this evening.

I know that I have to watch the liquid level and add water as needed.Of course I will closely watch it when I will bring it up to temperature and stir it frequently to make sure that I do not burn it.(The sauce is currently in the fridge)

I do have to say that the ground beef seems a bit stringy and not really that tender.Anything else that might come to you mind ?

Greetings Chef! I'll has ya' knows dat' I now done added this hearty meal recipe to my Food Wishes notebook. And I'll also has ya' knows dat' dis' meal was delish and dat' even my hard to please finicky ladyfriend gave it her stamp of approval. I did nevertheless forego the nutmeg in favor of sum' minced garlic. Sorry Marcella!

With love & respect: But mine came out bland and watery. Too much meat in the dish forbade me from reducing it down more - and the meat got dry. I rec. 500g. And it definitely needs sugar/garlic, maybe some herb. Of course, I'm no Chef John or Hazan.

Mine came out bland. Definitely needs garlic, sugar, maybe herb. I thought it was too much meat. I used 700g. - I rec. 500g or less. Too much meat forbade me from reducing the sauce to a thick, creamy consistency - and the meat came out dry. Simmered gently for 5 hours. Of course, I am no Chef John or Hazan.

Hi Chef John, I loved this sauce! I didn't have cayenne and I used red wine instead of white and milk, but it was delicious!!, Next time I will try to do it exactly as you say! Greetings from a Costa RIcan!!!

I made this last night to go into a lasagna I made for my wife's birthday (otherwise using Chef John's Christmas Lasagna recipe, of course! And since it was for a birthday, I went the extra mile and made "Homemades" lasagna dough -- which was good but overkill).

I really loved this sauce.

I used half beef and half Italian sausage (almost two pounds of meat in total), plus twelve ounces (I think) of chopped mushrooms. I really liked the mellowness of the white wine as opposed to red here. I ended up using two 28-oz cans of tomatoes rather than one can plus water, and thought it was perhaps a bit too saucy for the lasagna, but otherwise was lovely! And since I made a small lasagna (9x13) I had enough sauce left over to freeze two jars!

Hi Chef John,I am making this right now. Getting ready to add the wine. Do you promise all of the alcohol cooks off? I plan to take some of this to school for a teacher luncheon tomorrow. If I get my kid's teachers drunk, it could be a problem.Thanks!

I just finised making this sauce and it was the worst I made. Meat come out hard and dry :( Can someone tell me what I did wrong?

I admit I change recipe a bit. I used pork shoulder, removed fat, membranes and other tissues that won't cook well and ground it. I fried meat breaking it up like chef John said and transfered it all to a pot. Its more handy for me to fry on a pan. Then I deglazed a pan with some water and poured it over meat. I skipped the part with milk and white wine and went straight to adding tomatoes.

I wasn't sure about this step. My mom always taught me to add tomatoes at the end when meat is tender, cause otherwise it won't cook through. Since chef John did it this way, I did too, but can it be the reason why my meat stayed hard? I cooked it for 3 hours, by this time any pork sauce would have meat so tender that it would fall apart. While mine tastes like i would fry it for just 20 minutes.

Or is it how bolognese sauce should taste like? I eat it only in local take out stores where it did taste like it was fried for a short time.

Can anyone give me some advice? Cause now I'm left with a lot of sauce that noone in my family wants to eat and it looks like I will have to eat it by myself.

- used ground pork instead of ground beef- didn't add milk and wine- instead of wine I added water from deglazing pan

I know I will want to try this recipe again, it looks so yummy. So could you at least answer this questions?1. can ground meat in bolognese sauce be realy soft and tender? So soft that it will start to fall apart and not be dry?2. I always added tomatoes when meat was tender. Won't adding tomatoes at the beginning stop meat from being tender?3. why does it need even 6 hours to cook? Will there be any nutritions left after such a long cooking?

Probably poking in my 2 cents where it's not wanted. Alcohol evaporates out of the wine at about 175 degrees Fahrenheit. When you bring it to a simmer at 212 degrees, there is no longer any alcohol in the wine. All that is left is the flavor. The alcohol has left the dish and become vapor in the air.

Can you elaborate on why we're reducing the milk and wine, only to add more water after the tomato is added? That is, what changes if we did not reduce the milk and wine, and left out the excess water? Are those flavors incorporating into the meat & veg as opposed to the sauce?

Chef John, somehow my sauce is little sour. not sure if it has anything to do with one spoon of tomato paste that I added. I add little sugar to balance the taste. What else you could do if your sauce is little sour?

Thanks chef for another amazing recipe. I made this with some 'homemades', Rosemary pull apart buns (which I turned into garlic buns) and scalloped taytoes. The hubby made questionable noises as he engulfed his seconds. You never let me down... I swear your recipes are the glue in my happy marriage Happy cooking,Michelle

I love you Chef John! I just finished following the recipe word for word and am in 15 minutes of the 4 hours of simmering. I made your rosemary focaccia two nights ago (and it's almost gone), and i'm making the easy salmon sauce (basil, garlic, ginger etc) tonight, which every time I do, it comes out amazing. Thank you so much for all of your recipes, I check your blog on a weekly basis and introduced it to my dad, too. We all love your recipes and your sense of humor! I think some of the comments I read are weird and hilarious (in a bad way), and I never leave comments on anything on the internet but i wanted you to know you have followers that truly appreciate your work and are not insane! ;) Sorry for the long comment- like I said I never leave internet comments so I have bad comment etiquette. Thank you, and I hope you never stop providing us with amazing recipes and your awesome personality!

This is a fantastic recipe and you've done Marcella Hazan proud, Chef John! I did a mashup and used this bolognese in your Christmas Lasagna instead of the store-bought marinara sauce. Talk about out-of-this-world incredible!

I'm guessing the reason one person found the recipe to be runny and watery after 4 hours may be due to leaving the lid on the pot for the long cooking period, which would have prevented the water from evaporating. I've made the recipe also, and it is very good but the second time around I added too much cayenne for my taste, so a bit too hot and spicy for me. Just mentioning this for others who may also not tolerate spicy foods really well.

Does the time to simmer out the milk and wine differ depending on the size of your pot? I am using a large Creuset dutch oven and simmering out the milk is taking over an hour. Am I missing something? Thanks.

Excellent recipe Chef Jon, I'm glad I followed your frequent suggestions that you need to be the [insert authoritative character] of your [food analog].

I kept adding salt, pepper and sugar until it tasted just right, but it still was lacking something. For umami I added 1-2 tbsp of fish sauce, and that helped a lot. Finally, I added a lot more cayenne and red pepper flakes and man did it come out fantastic, easily the best meat sauce ever. Very filling and plenty of leftovers for the week ahead.

I just finished the sauce & wanted to let you know that it was absolutely FABULOUS!!! It was rich, velvety, and oh-so flavorful - a perfect balance between the wine and cream and tomato and aromatics. Perfect combination of flavors.

I have followed your blog post for a while and have yet to be disappointed - MY COMPLIMENTS!!!

Dear CJ, yesterday I made your version of Marcella Hazan's Bolognese sauce, following all instructions and ingredients to the letter; and it was a long, laborious, and MOST enjoyable experience. Results fantastic. Mother, old pasta-sauce hand, was extremely impressed (and entertained). Plenty left over to feast on for the next few days. Beemo is happy.

I made this sauce today. The only chnage I made was that I used ground lamb instead of beef (and thereby managed to keep the Hindu gods happy :) ). The result was terrific. I even bought mezzi rigatoni for this dish. And you are absolutely correct about cooking it for 4-6 hours. I tasted for seasoning at the 3 hour mark and was disappointed to find it rather bland and the meat very granular. But it started to come together at the 4.5 hour mark and when we EST it after almost 6 hours of cooking it was creamy and delicious. I intend to try it next time with half the amount of meat and mushrooms for the other half. Hopefully it will feel a little lighter then. But this recipe is definitely a keeper for me.

I had to go off book, but this is a great jumping off point for my own riff, thank you Chef John!

I went with cream, since I didn't have milk. I went with a bit of cider, since I didn't have any wine. (Only like 1 cup — it didn't make things too sweet at all.)

I also didn't have 4 hours, so I browned my meat, reduced the liquids for 5 minutes or so, and added a quart of red sauce I had in the freezer. I let this simmer for 30-45 minutes, and — while I'm sure it's not nearly as good as the actual recipe — it was 10x better than just adding ground beef to my sauce.

Hi chef! Amazing video but one question I know you e said any regular white wine but I'm having trouble which to pick this will be my very first time cooking with wine so could you tell me the brand you used please? Just so I won't screw it up lol

I've made this several times. It is hands down my favorite sauce recipe. I've tried a few alterations, but the only ones I'll stick with are garlic (sorry, I'm a garlic lover) and using a pressure cooker to reduce the cooking time after making your Chili Colorado. What do you think about that idea, Chef?

Just thought I would leave a note saying that this sauce was absolutely fantastic! The meat was very tender and flavorable. I am typically not a heavy red sauce with pasta eater, but this sauce was light and not over powering (probably because there was no garlic). Thanks Chef John for the videos - keep them coming!

Congratulation for being an amazing Chef and I enjoy all your recipes!

Maybe you can help me with this question. Why did you add the milk in the beginning and let it evaporate. I am learning this recipe and in the original and registered recipe in Italy they add the milk in the very end to give a silk texture to the sauce. I trust both ways are delicious, but I was just wondering from a Chef point of view and knowledge and for learning purpose only, if their is a reason for different procedure?

Just FYI, the above recipe is not 100% in keeping with Marcella's. Most of the ingredient amounts are equivalent, but Marcella calls for significantly more carrots and celery (~2/3c of each per 3/4 pounds of meat). Not sure if this was a typo or intentional but (IMO) the sauce is definitely better with more carrots and celery.